Should Have Been An Easy Job
by Kattz Maricle
Summary: I tried to keep this fic intact with the dialogue from the game. It turned out better than I thought it would. Anyway, it's about the times Reno and Cloud met face to face. Each chapter has to do with a difference scene.
1. Chapter I

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Should Have Been An Easy Job

By l77ercenary

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Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy VII. Someone else does.

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Reno dropped what was left of his cigarette and smashed it into the ground with his foot. This time it should be an easy job, capturing that Ancient and all. He never understood why Tseng always had such a hard time of it. Just walk in and grab her, right? There was no way she could put up a decent fight against him. Her materia was useless, too. Besides, he had three soldiers to back him up if necessary. _If necessary._ He probably wouldn't even need them. Just because that Ancient had always slipped out of the Turks grasp before didn't mean she was going to this time.

He walked into the church, the three soldiers waiting outside until he gave them the signal to come in. Reno stopped and stood just inside the door, watching two people when there was supposed to have been one. Who was this blond, spiky-haired guy? Reno listened in as the two people in front of him continued their conversation.

"Me.......? I I do a little bit of everything." Cloud finished saying.

Aeris looked slightly up at the ceiling, looking as if she was thinking over his comment. "Oh......a jack of all trades."

"Yeah, I do whatever's needed." nodded Cloud. Aeris started to to laugh lightly at something at a thought that had crossed her mind, but Cloud obviously didn't see it as that funny. He made a slicing motion with his arm through the air. "What's so funny? What are you laughing at?"

"Sorry......," Aeris apologized. "I just-"

That was when Reno realized that he had just been noticed. _Finally. It took them long enough._ Reno thought to himself. The two people just stared, watching him for a moment. He watched as Cloud turned to Aeris.

Aeris only said. "Sorry. Bad timing on my part." Unsure what she meant by that, Cloud started to walk towards the Turk. Before he had gotten halfway down the church aisle, he heard Aeris call after him. "Cloud! Don't let it get to you."

Cloud turned around and looked at her, wondering what Aeris was talking about. He shrugged at her comment and continued toward Reno. Reno only smirked as the spike-haired blond came closer, thinking that this guy wasn't nothing but another boyfriend that Aeris had picked up somewhere. Then he saw Cloud's eyes. Cloud's eyes had a strange glow to them, a hue that didn't seem right. Reno knew he had seen those type of eyes somewhere else before. 

Then that blond, that guy with those strange eyes, was standing next to him. Reno wasn't sure if Cloud had said anything to him or not, but it didn't really matter. He suddenly wasn't so sure if the job would go off without a hitch anymore.

The Turk shook his head and said calmly. "Don't worry about me." Reno watched as Cloud turned around and walked back to Aeris. His mind raced. _Those were mako eyes......_ The Ancient and the spiky-haired guy had begun talking about something, but to Reno the conversation had now gone low enough that it was inaudible to him. _Was he Mako infused? He has the body that someone in SOLDIER would have. That sword he carries...... It's too big for a normal man to use._

Then Cloud turned away from Aeris and began walking down the aisle toward him again.

"I don't know who you are, but......" Cloud said to the Turk, but then he shook his head, as if something was loose inside there and he was trying to straighten it again. Then suddenly he asked. "You don't know me......?"

Reno just looked on. Should he know this guy? Cloud's eyes seemed to glaze over for a few seconds as he looked at the Turk. Even though he was a Turk, he knew he wouldn't be able to take on an Ex-SOLDIER, if indeed this guy was just that. He pressed a button on his watch, alerting the soldiers waiting outside to come in.

Another voice, a voice not his, was speaking inside Cloud's mind. _I know you. _A bright light flashed itself across his mind. "Oh yeah...... I know you. That uniform......"

"......hey sis, this one's a little weird." Reno commented as he looked past Cloud at Aeris. The three soldiers that had been outside came through the door, soon standing beside the red-headed Turk, looking as though they were laughing internally at the Turk's comment. 

"Shut up! You Shinra spy." Cloud exclaimed, emphasizing his words with a wave of his right arm. 

The soldier directly to Reno's right spoke up. "Reno, want him taken out?"

Reno turned to the soldier. "I haven't decided yet."

Now it was Aeris's turn to speak up. "Don't fight here! You'll ruin the flowers!"

_We'll ruin a lot more than that._ Reno smirked at the thought. He watched as Aeris turned and ran towards what looked like a back exit, motioning for Cloud to follow her as she did. Cloud looked at the four men one last time before turning around and running for the exit as well. Reno walked foward, looking down at the flowers growing up through the hole in the church's broken floor. He hated flowers. He probably always would. He made sure to step on them as he passed. Who cared if he killed something in the church or not? 

"They were......Mako eyes." He said to himself as he watched the Ex-SOLDIER and the Ancient run through the exit. If he was worried any at all, he didn't let the soldiers behind him see it. The soldiers were expendable. He'd let them take care of the Ex-SOLDIER if a fight came up. He turned around to see that the soldiers were still laughing among themselves about something. "Yeah, all right. Back to work, back to work." He turned around, looking back at the ground for a second before walking toward the exit, crushing a particularly firm stemmed yellow flower into the ground as he did. Then he remembered something the Ancient had said. He ran back to the edge of the flower garden and motioned toward the soldiers. "Oh! And don't step on the flowers......" He turned and brushed his hair out of his eyes.

"Hey Reno, you just stepped on them!"

"They're all ruined!"

"You're gonna catch holy hell!"

_I caught that a long time ago. Won't make any difference what I do now._ Reno thought to himself as he walked through the exit and into what looked like the churches back room. He caught sight of Cloud and Aeris running across a wooden walkway almost a floor up. _Shit! They're gonna get away!_

He pointed them out to the soldiers, who were looking pretty clueless as to where their targets had disappeared to. "There they are, over there!"

What looked like a large column had collasped over the walkway probably some time before, breaking the walkway in half and causing a large gap. Cloud easily crossed the gap with a single leap, but Aeris seemed hesitant. Reno knew that this was their chance. If that Ancient could be separated from her 'bodyguard'then it should be no problem nabbing her.

"The Ancient is getting away!" Reno ordered the soldiers behind him as he pulled his gun. They'd shook the Ancient down if they had to. No one had told him she had to be brought back to Shinra headquarters alive. "Attack! Attack! Attack!"

"Eaygh!" Aeris screamed as a volley of gun fire barely missed her. She lost her balance and fell, sliding down the fallen column to the floor, where she landed with an ungraceful and painful thud. For a moment it looked like she had been knocked unconscious by the impact.

"Aeris!" Cloud called after her.

"Think we killed 'em?" Reno smirked at Aeris's motionless figure. "Shouldn't have put up a fight, I say!" 

It was then that Aeris stood up and brushed off her clothes._ So she got lucky. _Reno motioned for one of the soldiers to grab her. The soldier jumped down to the floor below and advanced toward her.

"Cloud, help!" Aeris called to the floor above her. 

"Damn!" Cloud cursed. He looked around for something that could help him. So far he knew Aeris had two choices: to either run or to fight. Aeris didn't look like much of a fighter, but neither was he sure that she could run fast enough to get away from that soldier. Cloud looked around quickly for a third option......and found one right above his head. "Aeris! Hold on a minute!"

_What does he think he's doing?_ Reno asked himself as he watched the blond run up the ladder and across the beams of the roof. Only when he saw a barrel fall down from the ceiling and squash the soldier below did he realize what was happening. _Shit!_

"What do you think you're doing? You two, get out there!" He commanded the remaining two soldiers. Then he ran back out the exit and into the main room of the church, looking up into the rafters as he did. The only way out of that room back there was through the rafters. He'd most likely see them come out through there. Reno readied his gun. When they showed their faces, he'd give them an unwelcome surprise. 

He could hear two more thuds, each a minute or so after each other. Two more barrels crushing two more soldiers, he supposed. He heard gunshots shortly after the second barrel landed. _That blond guy must have missed his mark._

"Aeris, this way!" 

Reno heard a voice and looked up. Cloud and Aeris were running across the rafters, just as he had expected. He had known that the soldier he had sent after them didn't stand a chance. Now it was his turn.

Reno raised his gun, pointing it at the two running figures, and pulled the trigger. The anticipation of the moment was drowned out by disappointment. The gun clicked, but didn't fire the shot. Reno pulled the trigger again. The same clicking sound.

_Out of bullets?_ He examined his weapon. There wasn't a single bullet left.

"SHIT!" He growled through clenched teeth. Before he was able to find another bullet clip and reload his the gun, Cloud and Aeris had already disappeared through a hole in the roof. He threw the gun across the room, ricocheting it off of the wall and into some pews. 

Damn, he knew he was going to get it this time when he got back to HQ. That's all he needed, another bad mark to foul up his report.

Tseng's just gonna have to live with it, the red-headed Turk decided as he walked down the aisle and out through the church doors. If Tseng, Hojo, or President Shinra had something to say about it, oh well. It didn't matter to him. The worst that could happen was that he would get terminated. No, not fired. Terminated, as in a bullet through the head.

Then again, he wouldn't even get that. Reno knew he was too valuable to the Turks to get that. If he went, not only would the Turks be short handed, but they'd be shorthanded one of the best gunmen that they've had in a while. Shinra couldn't afford to have him killed, not when he couldn't be replaced that easily.

He didn't live by excuses. He'd tell them the truth about what happened. Either way, he'd get another shot at that mako-eyed guy. He'd get another shot and he'd make sure that the next time he didn't miss.


	2. All Falls Down

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All Falls Down

By l77ercenary

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Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy VII. Someone else does.

Author's Notes: I wrote the battle scene in this according to what happened during my battle scene with Reno on the plate, though I didn't give Reno the upper hand in the battle like I am giving him in this fanfic. Yes, I did have Climhazzard by this time. I simplified the battle for the sake of fanfic length. 

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Reno crouched on the helicopter's side platform as he neared the plate. The wind blew stray strands of hair into his face and he frowned, his eyes narrowing as he set his gaze on the three people standing on the platform below. He felt a special hatred that was reserved for this blond guy, this Ex-SOLDIER..... He didn't have a gun that would stall on him this time. But he had his orders and those were first priority. He fingered the card in his hand, the one that all he had to do was pass it through a scanner down there and the plate would self detonate in only a matter of minutes.

The large black man, Reno instantly recognized him as Barret, the leader of Avalanche, held up his gun arm and began firing on the helicopter. Each bullet ricocheted off of the helicopter's side, each bullet dangerously close to catching Reno in their patch each time. The red-haired Turk jumped from the helicopter down to the platform as the helicopter passed by. Barret turned his gun toward the Turk and begun firing, but Reno had already reached his destination, the Emergency Plate Release System. 

"You're too late. Once I push this button..." He said, holding the executive over the button as the others ran up. He passed it through the scanner, which beeped, signaling that the job had been completed. He looked back toward the others. "That's all, folks! Mission accomplished." It was so pleasing to see that look on all their faces. 

"We have to disarm it! Cloud! Barret! Please!" Tifa pleaded to her friends. Reno looked toward her, laugher echoing in his eyes. Did she really think that_ they _could help her? Perhaps Avalanche wasn't quite as well informed about Shinra Co. as they thought. 

He'd get a chance to see exactly how tough this Ex-SOLDIER was. Tseng had discovered where that Ancient had run off to. All he had to do was stall these three long enough for Tseng to grab her without intervention her friends. _Shouldn't be too hard, _Reno thought to himself. He placed the executive card back into his pocket, the fingers of his free hand closing around his favorite weapon, the electro rod. 

"I can't have you do that. No one get in the way of Reno and the Turks..." The Turk said as he pulled the electro rod out, holding it toward them menacingly. 

So the fight was on, Cloud hoisting out his sword, Tifa gathering herself into a fighting stance, and Barret pretty much just staying the way he was, except now a scowl was crossed across his face. Reno let his weight fall back onto his right foot, letting his left foot more or less rest as he took on a casual stance, the electro rod now propped up on his left shoulder.

He focused energy into his electro-mag rod, which he glowed as he pointed at the Avalanchers, a ball of light emitting from the end and encasing Cloud. _Pyramid. _Reno smirked at the thoughts. _Let's see him break out of that._ "Try and break it if you can."

Tifa readied a fire spell. Reno felt the searing heat of the flames as the spell Fire engulfed him, but it wasn't enough to take him down. It'd take a lot more than that for him to see the end of this battle just yet. Barret fired his assault gun on him, but the attack was a miss. Reno rushed foward and pounded the black man over the head with the electro-mag rod. 

Tifa looked over at Cloud, who looked like a zombie inside of the yellowish pyramid that had been formed around him. She used a normal attack on the pyramid, but nothing happened. The pyramid was still there, though weakened. As she prepared to use another attack, she felt electricity fill the air. As soon as the feeling had touched her, a Bolt spell, cast by Barret, hit the pyramid and the pyramid dissipated and Cloud broke out of the prison. Free, the Ex-SOLDIER rushed forward and slashed out at the Turk.

Reno felt the touch of the cold buster sword as it touched his skin. If that attack would have made full contact he was sure it would have killed him. Instead, he only felt the pain that would have been there if the buster sword had actually made contact. No blood was present, but the pain was there and he felt notably weaker. He rushed forward, stabbing the electro-mag rod into Tifa, activating it. A jolt of high voltage electricity passed through the rod and into the girl, zapping her into paralysis. It was only temporary, but it would allow him the few more minutes he needed to stall them.

It was then that he decided that paralyzing the girl was probably one of the word decisions that he could have possibly made during the battle.

Barret roared, pouring a stream of bullets from his weapon into Reno. Reno bent over as he felt the stings of each individual bullet. He ran forward and belted the black man over the head with the electro-mag rod again, but this time the attack was returned with Barret's limit break. Big shot. A reddish glow covered the leader of Avalanche as he powered up, dying just in time for Reno to see a ball of red energy build on the end of the assault gun. An explosion rocked him as the energy ball hit him. 

It was then that the red-haired Turk decided to look slightly to his left.

Cloud was building up his limit break as well. Reno felt the stabbing pain as the metal sunk deep into his body. He saw the angry glint in Cloud's eyes as he jumped upwards, bringing the blade up through the Turk's shoulder and out. Climhazzard. Then he felt the sudden cold burning sensation as an Ice spell was cast over him. 

He fought to keep his composure as he stood there. Just to keep standing was probably the most difficult thing he figured he'd ever done. _Just like the training you had to pass to become a Turk, right?_ He thought to himself. _Just a little bit more. Just until the helicopter comes back._

Just then he heard the beating sound of fast moving rotors behind him. The sound was coming from somewhere just under the plate. The helicopter! It was time to go.

He looked at his watch. Only a few short minutes remained until the plate exploded and collapsed down on Sector 7. He looked back at Cloud and the others. "It's time." He raised his hand in a mock solute just before he turned and ran off.

He pushed Tifa out of the way as he ran toward the bars on the edge of the plate. He took a flying leap off of the side, catching onto one of the helicopter skies as he fell. He knew he wasn't able to pull himself up. A pain that he'd never felt before was coursing through his shoulder, threatening to make his hand release its grip. Still he hung on.

That was when he felt a hand reach out and grab his arm tightly, almost painfully, as it pulled him up onto the deck. Once he was securely inside the helicopter, he looked into the face of Tseng, realizing that it had been him that had pulled him up. 

"Everything set?" Tseng asked as if Reno wasn't standing there bloodied and battered.

Reno nodded before walking into the helicopter and sitting down on one of the seats. The pilot looked back at him, eying the blood covered Turk from behind the dark visor of the pilot helmet. 

"Don't get blood on the seat, Turk." The pilot spat. 

An electro-mag rod was soon nestled beneath the pilot's chin.

"Don't start with me." The redheaded Turk said simply.

--Outside--

Tifa ran toward the Emergency Plate Release System frantically searching for a way to stop the time bomb. Cloud ran over to her. She looked at him, her eyes almost begging for a solution before her words could.

"Cloud! I don't know how to stop this. Try it!" She moved out of the way, letting Cloud assume the position at the controls.

By the look of things, Cloud wasn't' faring any better than she had. 

He said after a few seconds. "...It's not a normal time bomb."

"That's right. You'll have a hard time disarming that one." Tseng said as he and the helicopter rose into view. The helicopter hovered just above the railing. "It'll blow the second some stupid jerk touches it." A look of pure surety yet pure calmness was on the Turk leader's face.

Tifa ran forward, stretching out her hands and pleading as if it would help the matter any. "Please, stop it!"

Tseng laughed, motioning with his right arm as he spoke. "Ha ha ha...... Only a Shinra executive can set up or disarm the Emergency Plate Release System."

"Shut yer hole!" Barret growled and raised his weapon, support his gun arm with his good hand. He began to fire on Tseng and the helicopter.

Tseng began to speak again, saying something that stopped Barret cold in his tracks. "I wouldn't try that...... You just might make me injure our special guest."

It was then that the pink object sitting next to where Tseng stood moved, or to say, raised it's head and looked down onto the three-person party below. Aeris looked at him, her eyes saddened, but a strange sense of assurance in them, as if she had willingly been sitting on that deck with the Turk. Barret lowered his gun arm and looked at the girl with surprise. The look on Cloud and Tifa's faces were the same, of shock, but it was Tifa who found the ability to speak first.

"Aeris!!"

"Oh, you know each other?" Tseng looked over his shoulder at Aeris as if he didn't know the answer to his question already. "How nice you could see each other one last time. You should thank me." He smirked as he looked back toward the group.

It was Cloud's turn to speak, and his voice was demanding. "What are you gonna do with Aeris!?"

The raven-haired Turk shrugged as if the situation didn't really matter, if any at all, not much. "I haven't decided. Our orders were to find and catch the last remaining Ancient." He waved his hand. "It's taken us a long time, but now I can finally report this to the President."

Aeris bent down over the edge of the deck, her hand outstretched as if she was reaching out for Tifa. "Tifa, don't worry! She's all right!" The moment those words escaped her lips she fell back, her face stinging with the blow she had just received from Tseng.

Tifa ran forward until she was right next to the railing, almost directly underneath the helicopter. She reached out her hand up above her. "Aeris!"

But Aeris wasn't going to be silenced so easily. She fell back to her hands and knees, calling out to the people below with a frantic voice. "Hurry and get out!"

Tseng didn't bother to discipline her this time. His body visibly shook as he chuckled. "Ha ha ha... Well, it should be starting right about now. Think you can escape in time?"

The helicopter rose into the air. Cloud, Barret, and Tifa looked up just in time to see the helicopter pass over as an explosion rocked the pillar, an explosion blowing huge sections of the stone column away from the pillar with a fiery blast. Tseng grabbed Aeris by the arm and tossed her inside the helicopter cabin.

--Inside--

The sound of an explosion filled Reno's ears as the plate started its detonation. If Sector 7 hadn't already been a doomed slum from the beginning, it was now. As giant slabs of the stone pillar fell dangerously close to the helicopter, the oncoming turbulence was enough to force Reno to brace himself as the helicopter tried to regain itself. The Ancient was pushed through the door, followed by Tseng, whose steps seemed heavier than usual. 

"Hey," Reno forced a smile, which turned out as more of a pained smirk. "I stalled him, didn't I?"

"You nearly got yourself killed is what you did." The way Tseng said it was enough to bite through steel, but as usual, Reno didn't even feel it. He only looked on, his usual smirk masked across his face.

"The slums......" Aeris rose from where she had been thrown by the Turk and looked out the window, her hands and pressed against the clear bullet-proof plastic as she watched what was happening below.

"After a few more seconds, there won't be anything to worry about." Tseng commented, taking a seat on the opposite side of the helicopter. "Sit down and enjoy the ride."

Aeris, her eyes still locked on what was happening outside of the confinements of the helicopter, sat down uneasily, her hands clasped in her lap, holding on to each other as if that was all they had left in the world. She wanted to shut her eyes from the scene, at least advert them to something else, but they were locked and she was unable to remove them from the disaster below.

Reno peered out of the small round window as well, but his eyes weren't locked on the devastation. He couldn't care less what was happening to the people of the slums. As far as he was concerned, it was another day, another paycheck. For a moment he thought his imagination was playing tricks on him. For a moment he thought he had just seen those three people he had just fought grasp onto one of the pillar's large support hooks and escape......


End file.
